Week Eighteen

   The second point of Ephesians 6:4b is this, raising children must not only be Intentional, it must also be:
11. INSTRUCTIONAL "Bring them up in the training...

   Allow me to use another familiar Oklahoma fact-the wind predominantly blows from the South. Most trees lean to the North because then have been blown that way since they were seedlings. But it is possible to 'train' a tree to grow however you want it to grow.
You have to support it until the trunk is big enough and the roots are deep enough that the wind can't affect it. You can't stop the wind from blowing, but you can raise a tree that grows straight, tall, and strong.

   You can also raise your children to grow straight, tall, and strong—but it takes training, support and encouragement from the time they begin life. I have learned that I can't stop the wind form blowing and trying to affect my children's lives. It is my job, and my joy, to support them until the can get the roots down deep enough and they stand strong enough to resist the wind of the world.

   The last part of 6:4b is this: Intentional, Instructional, and,

   Ill, ETERNAL (Sue tried to get me to use Inchurchical but I resisted)
Eternal. .'in the admonition of the Lord.' To admonish is to correct with compassion. It is to go beyond calling attention to someone's mistake or error, it is giving them the tools they need to change the behavior permanently. Obviously, the admonishment of the Lord deals with teaching and &training a child to understand low to receive instruction from the Lord and what to do with Christ's teaching.

   It sounds pretty easy, but I know multitudes of Christians who struggle at this very point. They mistakenly believe that Christ's correction is punishment, so they become unteachable. Once you allow an unteachable attitude to settle things can get pretty ugly.
 
   You begin to confuse conviction with condemnation and you fern a deaf ear, or a closed heart, to what God is trying to do
Maybe you got side-tracked in your spiritual journey and the enemy twisted the truth of God's Grace in your life. The grace of God allows us to fall into the merciful hands of God and find a Father Who loves us.

  
                                      Blessings Prayers and Love,
                                             Bro Tom and Sister Sue